


Lone Soul

by jessfreespirit



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Javier's son, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-11-24 16:56:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18167774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessfreespirit/pseuds/jessfreespirit
Summary: His auntie never liked talking about his padre before, but Ricardo has no choice and he leaves Mexico to look for Javier Escuella, who he doesn't know much about. It seems to be a hard task for a small scared boy, especially when his mum is held hostage by the government and he has no one to get help from.





	1. Chapter 1.

_“Look, I did it!”_  the boy said with a pleased smile on his face, looking at his mum who anxiously grabbed the metal rods and started whispering.

 _“Go back! Now! Ricardo, listen to me now!”_ she was breathing quickly, feeling the heart beating in the chest and cold sweat on her palms. 

As the boy was slim and small, he easily squeezed through the rods.

 _“But I just got out!”_  Ricardo frowned and gaped, not wanting to go back to the cold cell.  _“Mamá, I’ll go and find the key and will get you out too!”_

 _“RICARDO!”_  desperately cried the woman, but the boy didn’t listen.

He turned around and, being as silent as he could, carefully crossed the dark hall, reaching the old creaking stairs. Ricardo was still a boy and didn’t think of the consequences of his escape, dreaming about getting his mum out of the cell and returning back to his auntie with her, thinking about auntie’s sunny backyard and her soft voice as she used to sing him every night, about tasty food she and his mum would cook and an old horse Ricardo loved spending time with. Auntie always said that the horse belonged to his  _padre,_ but she never talked much about him, becoming really quiet everytime Ricardo mentioned him or started asking questions. Ricardo couldn’t understand why he and his mum were held in the nasty cell, which he already started hating, and who were the scary-looking men, who always talked to his mum too loudly and angrily, sometimes saying bad words about both of them. 

The stairs were long and some of them were missing, so Ricardo was really carefull, not wanting to fall down into the darkness. He was focused on his well thought out plan, breathing heavily and his eyes wide, as the thought of being caught was too intimidating for him. 

Crossing the fenced yard, Ricardo tried to look for something which could help to get his mum out of the cell, but couldn’t find anything. He saw some men with guns and tried avoiding them, hiding in the bushes and being really quiet. Ricardo couldn’t understand, why he kept shivering and his legs felt numb, but still kept going, having no idea where he could find the key. 

Sudden noise behind made him flinch and someone’s strong grip on his shirt lifted him from the ground, startling Ricardo. He started furiously kicking the man and even bit him once, regretting that soon enough as the man threw him on the ground and hit him in the face, causing acute pain and tears appearing in Ricardo’s eyes. 

 _“You piece of shit!”_  the man spit and pulled out the gun, aiming at Ricardo.

Ricardo froze, feeling shiver going down his spine and his heart stopping in the chest.

 _“What’s going on here?”_ another man walked out of the shadow, observing the boy, who was laying on the dusty ground, almost not breathing. Ricardo recognized him - he often visited the basement and talked badly to his mum, discussing things the boy couldn’t really understand.  _“We have a little fugitive here? What should I do with you?”_

The smirk on the man’s face was even more intimidating, than the gun pointed at Ricardo. He looked like he suddenly got an idea he absolutely loved.

_“Just let me shoot this little shit.”_

_“No, I have a better idea,”_  the man sat on one knee, making Ricardo crawl away, but another man’s foot on the boy’s leg didn’t let him, causing new acute pain, but this time Ricardo couldn’t hold back a cry.

_“I’m letting you go, you hear me, little bastard? And you run away as far as you can, not coming back to Mexico, not until you find Javier Escuella and bring him to me. You know who Javier Escuella is?”_

Ricardo nodded, looking right in the eyes of the man.

_“But my mamá…”_

_“We’ll have a deal. You bring Escuella to me and I let your mum leave.”  
_

Not quiet sure about anything, Ricardo carefully listened and tried to find a way out of the situation, but he couldn’t. What did he mean by leaving Mexico? Where was he supposed to go?

 _“If you don’t cross the American border during next three days, then my men will find you and kill you,”_  the man coldly stated, getting up and turning away.  _“RUN!”_ he yelled.

 Ricardo jumped up, taking few steps back, staring at the man, and in a few seconds was already running, crossing the yard, as burning tears on his cheeks made his vision blurry. He could hear laughter behind him, but didn’t look back, feeling his heart beating in his chest.

He had no idea where the American border was and that was the first problem. But he had to find his  _padre_ , if he wanted to free his mum. And Ricardo was sure he would find him.

Warm sand kept getting into Ricardo’s boots, his lungs were burning and legs could barely move, but he kept running.

The sun was rising.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was too hot and Ricardo was about to faint from the fatigue - he’s been walking for hours, not meeting anyone on the way, even no animals, but that’s probably was a good thing. His head hurt from the hit he got, making it unbearable to keep going further, but he had to. ”… _my_   _men will find you and kill you,”_ Ricardo kept hearing that ice cold voice, which kept him going. His throat was sore and lips chapped, shirt wet from the sweat and dirty boots weren’t saving from the heated ground.

He was devastated and couldn’t think of anything, just kept walking, until he collapsed on the ground in the middle of the road.

Waking up wasn’t nice for Ricardo as someone decided to pour out some water on him. He almost jumped, coughing and wildly staring at the man in front of him, trying to get up, though he immediately fell back, having no strength in his body.

“You okay, kid?” the man had a low rough voice and was looking down on Ricardo, sitting in the saddle of the horse and smoking.

Ricardo frowned, not understanding a word, but noticed a canteen in the stranger’s hand and greedily looked at it. The man noticed the boy’s gaze and threw the canteen to him, watching Ricardo catching it and then immediately drinking it.

He almost choked while drinking, not stopping for a second until the canteen was empty, breathing heavily with eyes closed.

“Hey, careful,” the man added, still not leaving. “Whatcha doing here?”

 _“I don’t understand,”_ Ricardo said, still sitting on the ground and carefully watching the man, still not sure if he was dangerous.

“Uh, I’m heading to America,” the man said with a confused look on his face. “but I could give you a ride. You understand? A ride?” he pointed at his horse.

 _“America?”_  after hearing _a_ familiar word Ricardo slowly stood up, a little shaking.  _“I need to go to America!”_

“Yeah, America,” growled the man, nudging the horse and approaching Ricardo, who took a few steps back with a scared look on his face.

“Not gonna hurt ya,” he threw away his cigarette and showed empty hands. The boy hesitated, but nodded, letting the man help him to get on the horse behind him.

It was already evening, the sun was slowly going down as it was getting colder. Ricardo was holding on a saddle, hoping not to fall down, feeling his eyes started closing. He noticed that the man was looking for some place, stopping the horse all the time and looking around.

In a few hours the stranger set up a tent and started a fire, smirking at the sight of the kid getting as close to the fire as he could, desparately trying to get warm. Ricardo still couldn’t really believe that everything happening now was real, hoping that it was just another bad dream. He would be happy even to wake up in that cold cell with his  _mamá_ near him. Thinking about  _mamá_ made his eyes teary, Ricardo missed her too much, as she was one of few people who were always there for him. She was always so kind and her voice so soft, that Ricardo would calm down just after hearing her speaking, lightly brushing his dark hair, and now he needed that too much.

The man fell asleep too soon after sharing some food with Ricardo, who was left alone near the fire, not forgetting to add some sticks all the time, so he wouldn’t get cold. Carefully glancing at the tent and hearing snores coming out of it, Ricardo pulled out a photo from the pocket of his shirt, looking at it with teary eyes and holding back the sobbing. He looked at his  _mamá’s_ loving dark eyes, which were looking back at him from the old photo, and wondered if she was okay. Hoping that she was okay. Ricardo really wanted to get back and to say to her that he was sorry, that he didn’t listen to her again, but he couldn’t.

”… _my_   _men will find you and kill you…”_

A sudden thought intimidated the boy, as he tensed and turned around to look at the tent. The man couldn’t be one of them? What if he wanted to kill him? Ricardo shivered from that thought and decided not to sleep, so he wouldn’t be caught off guard.

Carefully putting the photo back to the pocket, Ricardo took a silver ring from it, twisting it in his small hands, remembering about how his auntie gave it to him.

 _“Here, mijo”_ she said that night, when Ricardo was already laying in bed and got really excited about the thought of the present. But  _tia_ looked upset, although she was smiling, so Ricardo got serious.  _“this ring my brother, your padre, gave me a long time ago, so I wouldn’t forget about him. I want you to have it and remember about me and him. You promise me?”_

That night Ricardo didn’t understand why he had to remember about someone who he never met, but he always remembered about his auntie and kept the ring in the pocket with his mum’s photo, as those were his greatest treasures.

He hid the ring and added some more wood into the fire, it’s getting hard to resist the sleep. He closed his eyes just for a second…

Someone started shaking Ricardo and he muttered something with displease, until a low voice yelled near him.

“Get up!” after opening his eyes and trying hard not to yawn, Ricardo saw the man standing near him, his stuff already packed and he was ready to leave. The kid jumped up, confused after the sleep. “We’re leaving.”

Ricardo frowned, but followed the man, guessing that they were about to keep going. He got on the back of the horse with the help of a stranger who still hasn’t even said his name, but Ricardo had no idea how to ask about that. So he was just a man.

The weather wasn’t changing and it’s as hot as yesterday. The road was dusty and the horse was going in a trot, thankfully not noticing any snakes yet. It wouldn’t be nice to be bucked off.

All the time Ricardo was very careful, but nothing bad happened and no one followed them, as they safely crossed the border a few days later. During this time he learned a few basic words and phrases in English, slowly learning, but he at least was trying to.

At the sixth day of their journey they got to the small town, which Ricardo immediately didn’t like - the streets were empty and dirty, also it has been raining all day long and he was shivering.

“Boy,” the man said afte dismounting and watching Ricardo jumping down. “Meet me near the mail in an hour.”

Ricardo didn’t understand and interrogatively stared at the man and then pointed at the nearest building.

“Shit, not that one, it’s the sheriff’s office,” he cursed, looking displeased. “The law. No.”

He pointed at the small building at the end of the street.

“In an hour.”

He left with the horse, heading to the saloon, as Ricardo watched him for not long and then ran to the building he asked about first. He didn’t knew that word.  _Law._ Standing on the tiptoes, he carefully took a look through the dirty window, noticing a sheriff and some cells, understanding the meaning of the word.

It’s getting dark and Ricardo didn’t feel like staying for too long all alone outside, so he walked to the saloon. When he was near the doors, his guide walked out with another stranger, not noticing the boy as he immediately hid behind the barrel.

He followed them, staying rather from, but still hearing the voices. English was something too hard for him for understanding, but he heard some familiar words. They were talking about some men as Ricardo could hear the names, but then he managed to understand that new word, the law. They talked about the lawmen, probably, but why?

Ricardo frowned and kept hiding in the shade, feeling heart beating in the chest and how cold his hands got. He froze when heard the familiar name - his name, understanding that talked about him. They wanted to give him to the law? But why here, not back in Mexico?

He didn’t have time for any thinking, as it was his only chance to escape. The men were rather drunk and wasn’t paying any attention to the things happening around, so Ricardo silently crossed the street and approached the horse he’s been travelling on with the man. He patted its neck, feeling strong muscles under his touch, and untied the horse, slowly walking away with the reins in his hand. When he safely got to another street, Ricardo hardly got on the horse back and nudged it, trying not to fall down and feeling the wind brushing his dirty hair.

He hoped not to get caught, not until he gets to another town and figures out what to do.

After actually getting to America he was more close to his  _padre,_ although he didn’t know how he looked like and where he was. Ricardo thought about asking people in towns, but wasn’t sure if it would help him. He had that man’s map with him, where crossed meants the nearest towns and Ricardo hoped he understood it correctly and was on the right way. He wasn’t sure.

\---

 _“WHERE’S MY SON?!”_  Araceli yelled at the smirking man, feeling hot tears on her cheeks.  _“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM? I swear, when I’ll get out of here you’re DEAD!”_

She was breathing heavily, body tensed, staring at the man, who was standing near the cell, looking too pleased.

 _“That Escuella’s bastard got a deal. He brings me his padre and I’m letting you go,”_  he wildly smiled at the sight of the woman falling down to her knees on the cold floor, her heart almost stopping.

 _“What?… He’ll die out there…”_  she muttered, wanting not to believe everything happening was real.  _“Oh no, he’ll die… That’s my fault…”_

 _“Wanted to just shoot him first,”_  he kept talking, enjoying Araceli’s reaction.  _“But then got a better idea. It’d be more fun if he suffered before dying. No food. No water. Wild animals. Amazing.”_


	3. Chapter 3

It’s getting dark and the horse kept snorting in displease as they’ve been on the way the whole day. Ricardo carefully pulled the reins, stopping the mare and gently patting its neck.

“You’re a good horse,” he muttered, looking around and trying to figure out if the current place would be a good one for staying for the night.

It was a small grassy glade and it looked rather safe for the boy, who was hoping not to meet anyone here. He wasn’t deep in the forest so there wasn’t a big chance to meet any big wild animals, at least Ricardo thought so. 

According to the map he had, the nearest town wasn’t very far and Ricardo would get there the next day if things go as planned. He wasn’t stopping the mare all day, intimidated by the thought of being caught or even worse.

Ricardo couldn’t read in English, so he couldn’t tell what was the name of the town, but it was already something. As he had some money in the stolen satchel he could get some food, which would be a good idea as he didn’t have lots of canned food with him. Just enough for a week or so. Maybe less. He wasn’t sure.

Carefully getting off the horse, Ricardo tried to take off some things from the saddle bad, but couldn’t reach it as he wasn’t tall enough. He grabbed the reins and walked to the nearest rock with the horse, climbing it and then taking everything he needed.

It didn’t take much time to light a fire, as Ricardo often used to do that back home when he and his mum would gather around the fire together. Wrapped up in the warm blanket, watching the burning flames, Ricardo would listen to his mum’s endless stories and fairy tales, loving how soft her voice sounded and how beautiful she looked even in the dim light. He missed her and his home, wanting to go back so badly, but he couldn’t.

Ricardo didn’t even think of the possibility that he would never find his padre or he wouldn’t agree to help, probably because of his childish faith in others which still hadn’t died yet.

He had some dinner and fell asleep on a ragged bedroll, having nightmares all night.

After quick breakfast he gathered everything and got into the saddle, nudging the horse and getting back to the path which he was following the day before.

It turned out that Ricardo succeeded in reading the map and got to the town, still not sure of its name and started looking around. No one really payed much attention to a lone kid, so he didn’t have any problems, until he didn’t get to the store.

He had problems with speaking to the store owner and ended up getting a few cans of food, doubting that he didn’t give too much money, being left with a few dollars.

Ricardo was wandering along the town, looking at the stores with interest and wondering where to start. He noticed one building, in which people kept going in, and that drew the boy’s attention. 

After tying the reins the kid carefully walked in and coughed, breathing in the unpleasant smoke of the cigarettes. Loud music was filling the air as some man was playing the piano in some corner of the saloon, the bar was occupied and it was hard to go through this crowd, as nobody even notice a kid, who was trying to get to the bartender.

Nobody ever heard about Javier Escuella. Only once he found some man, but Ricardo couldn’t understand a word and was really sad about that fact.

One night he was travelling through the woods on his horse, trying to find some place to stay at.

But he seemed to be not alone.

He heard some growling behind and nudged the horse, feeling the heart beating too fast and palms sweating, as the reins kept slipping out of his grip. Ricardo saw a huge dark figure running behind and tightened his grip on the reins, feeling the cold running down his spine, panicking. The mare started tossing from side to side, as the wolves kept surrounding the boy on the horse, her ears flicking back and forth and the tail swishing. She snorted and refused to keep going, shying away all the time, making it hard for Ricardo to stay in the saddle. He heard low howling among the dark tall trees, noticing glowing eyes between them, and could hardly hold back a sob, not knowing what to do. He had a knife, but that wouldn’t help against a pack of wolves.

Ricardo tried to grip the mare with his legs and that was his mistake. In a few seconds the horse bucked him off, making him fall on the ground, knocking out the air from his lungs and causing acute pain in his back. He moaned from the pain, clenching his jaw and trying to get up. Standing as his legs kept shaking, Ricardo took a step back, pressing the tree trunk with his back, his breath shallow. He heard horse’s cry as the wolves attacked her and felt burning tears running down his paled cheeks, one of wolves was slowly approaching Ricardo, making him carefully move away, lifting up his right hand with a knife in it. His hand was shaking and his vision was blurry because of the tears. 

The wolf jumped and Ricardo screamed, grabbing the knife with both hands, trying to attack back. He felt sharp pain in his wrist as the wolf’s claws tore apart the soft skin and cried, wildly staring at the animal who just bounced off, giving Ricardo precious seconds to escape. The boy turned around, pain in his hand so strong that he could barely see anything, Ricardo jumped and grabbed the nearest tree branch, pulling himself up and keeping climbing higher. He heard howling and growling down below, but his goal was to get as high as he could, so the wolves wouldn’t get him. 

He was sitting at the wide branch, hugging tightly the tree trunk, scared of falling down. Ricardo was wincing and noticed that his sleeve was soaked with blood, which kept dripping on his dirty trousers, but didn’t do anything, sobbing and shaking. His horse’s agonic cry was still ringing in Ricardo’s ears, scaring him to death as he couldn’t stop thinking of the wolves tearing apart his horse. He was glad he didn’t get to see that. Or didn’t end up being eaten by the animals. 

His mamá was always saying - never leave the village alone, it is dangerous out there. She always said Ricardo to avoid wild animals. 

Oh, how much Ricardo wished to be with his mamá, not to feel any pain or this wild fear, which was driving him crazy.

It was slowly getting lightening up as the sun kept rising, but these hours seemed to last forever for the boy. Ricardo’s clenched fingers went numb, still tightly holding the tree trunk, he was dizzy and the thumping headache was awful. The wound on the hand reminded of itself just now, making tears run down his cheeks.

There’s still some noise on the ground and Ricardo didn’t dare to move. He could hear some gunshots somewhere far, but thought that they weren’t real, as he was about to pass out after so much stress and the blood loss.

The sound of the horse hooves was louder now and Ricardo frowned and slightly opened his eyes, looking down. He wasn’t sure if everything happening was real and took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

He noticed few wolves eating up something which was his lovely horse, now dead, who was so nice and always let Ricardo pat her neck. Tears kept burning his cheeks as the boy started crying again, wishing that everything happening was a bad dream.

When Ricardo heard some yelling and horses’ snorting he looked down again, watching four men approaching with guns in their hands.

“These bastards got another horse, dammit!” the man grumbled, pulling the reins and stopping his horse. “Fucking animals.”

“Ya heard that?” another man said, looking much younger than the first one. 

“Whatcha heard?”

“Someone... Shit! Look at that tree!”

Ricardo didn’t see that well what was happening down below and couldn’t understand everything, but he noticed that people were looking at him and then they pointed at the ground.

“There’s a kid! Hey ya! Come down! We won’t hurt ya!” a low voice said. “Ya here me?”

Feeling too tired and not being sure what else he could do, Ricardo decided to try to get down. He could understand that he wouldn’t make it if he stays all alone in the woods, so he slowly was climbing down, grabbing tree branches with his shaking fingers.

Right near the ground he missed one of the branches and immediately fell, hitting the ground with a quiet cry. 

“What for do ya need him?” one of the men grumbled, but still got off the horse and approached Ricardo, who was still laying with his eyes closed, his breath fast and heavy. 

“That’s just a kid, not right to leave him to die. Could find some work for him on the ranch.”

Ricardo was tensed and was carefully listening to the men, trying to guess who they were, maybe some hunters as he could hear the dogs barking somewhere far. Or maybe he was just dreaming and there were no dogs.

He passed out soon, when one of the man kneeled near him and asked something.

But Ricardo couldn’t hear him.

Everything happening later he remembered fuzzily, regaining consciousness all the time and then passing out again. He could feel that someone carried him somewhere, then he was on the horse, but everything was really blurry and Ricardo didn’t stay awake for long.

When he woke up next time it was early morning. He lowered his eyebrows, looking at the ceiling of a barn, breathing heavily and moaning ‘cause of the acute pain, which started bothering Ricardo when he tried to get up. He was laying on some hay on the wooden floor, covered with a shabby blanket. 

Lifting his hurt hand, Ricardo noticed that it had been bandaged and looked much better than before. 

A girl entered the barn, curiously looking at Ricardo and shyly smiling at him. She seemed to be a bit younger and shorter, her chestnut brown hair wavy and a bit dirty. Ricardo tensed and was attentively looking at the girl, but she didn’t seem to want to harm him in any way. She waved her hand and approached, smiling.

“Hello, it’s nice to see you!” she said and uncertainly stopped near Ricardo, deciding to sit near him. Taking a sit, she fixed her simple yellow dress and looked at the boy. “My name is Emily, what is your name?”

“H- hello,” Ricardo coughed and closed his eyes for a second, finding it hard to speak. Emily noticed that and handed him a cup of water. Ricardo drank all of it. “Thank you,” he said with a strong accent. 

Although Ricardo wasn’t very good at English yet, but he already learned basic words and phrases and understood what the girl asked. “Name is Carlos.”

“Oh! I like your name!” Emily said with a wide smile on her baby face. She didn’t seem to be older than five or six years old. “My brothers found you and brought to our ranch. They said,” she looked around, as she tried to check if anyone else tried to overhear their dialogue, and then leaned closer, “that you almost died! That’s so awful!”

Ricardo just kept staring at her, not sure what the girl was talking about, he could understand some random words, but that wasn’t enough for understanding all the sentences. He hated this feeling when he couldn’t understand people around him.

Although, Emily didn’t seem to notice Ricardo struggling and kept talking.

“And I was SO scared, hoping that you wouldn’t die!”

There was some noise, coming from the other side of the barn, which turned out to be men speaking. Ricardo tensed and with struggle sat up, clenching his jaw and trying not to moan from sudden pain in his body.

Emily jumped up, not smiling anymore and looking at the men with a scared look on her face. It looked like she wasn’t allowed to come here.

“Whatcha doing? Go back to the house!” grumbled the man and Emily ran to the doors, not looking at Ricardo. “So you’re finally awake, boy?”

Ricardo attentively watched the man in front of him. The man was bald and a little chubby with a stubble on his cheeks. His dark eyes were looking at Ricardo and then he smirked.

“You’re a little fighter, ain’t ya?” the man laughed and then condescendingly looked at Ricardo. “Where do ya live, boy?”

“I... bad English,” Ricardo said, trying hard to remember all the words he recently learned. “Alone.”

“Huh? Staying all alone in the woods? I could find you some work on the ranch,” the man stated, noticing that Ricardo understood him and nodded. “Good. When your wound heals then you’ll start you work, ya hear me boy?”

Ricardo nodded.

And that’s where he stayed for next two months. When his hand healed, leaving a nasty scar, Ricardo was taught how to work on the ranch. He didn’t do anything too serious, but was rather busy and always immediately fell asleep in the evening, being too tired after a long day. He had food and a place where he could sleep at night and that was a nice change after all the struggle of living all alone. 

Ricardo was quickly mastering English, being able to speak rather well now. Emily liked sneaking to places where Ricardo was working and the two of them talked about silly stuff, but Ricardo still loved that. He felt like he got a new friend and that was nice.

Milking cows wasn’t too hard and Ricardo rapidly mastered that, so it wasn’t taking as much time as before. When he finished things earlier than expected, Ricardo had an opportunity to rest in the shadow of the barn. Luckily, the owner of the ranch never noticed him resting during the day or he would get in troubble.

Before falling asleep Ricardo always took out from the pocket of his shirt the picture of his mum and his aunt’s ring, which were reminding him of home and the reason he was in America. One day he had to leave the ranch and kept going, but the thought of that didn’t seem to be really nice for Ricardo as he started enjoying warm food and sleeping in the hay in the barn. Better than the woods. He was wondering how much time it would take to find his padre and what he would tell him? Secrelty Ricardo was intimidated by the thought that he would never find him.

Some other kids were living at the ranch too, doing some easy work. But Ricardo never talked to them much and once ended up having a fight with one of them, but that wasn’t anything serious.

One day mister Abrams, the owner of the ranch, gathered all the workers near his house to make an announcement. He looked displeased and frowned, breathing heavily.

“So a few months ago our ranch was blindly robbed by that damn gang,” mister Abrams started speaking, his voice harsh and low. “Looks like they’re not that far away again. So keep an eye on everyone who approached the ranch. Here are their wanted posters I got in town.”

He took out of his satchel the posters and then his son started giving them to others.

“Arthur Morgan.” 

Ricardo looked at the portrait of a man, taking the poster in his hands and wondering, what exactly happened back then.

“John Marston.”

Another wanted poster appeared in the boy’s hands, but he quickly passed it to the next worker, who was standing near. He never saw these men before, but made sure to remember their faces.

And then he heard it.

“Javier Escuella.”

Ricardo froze and stared at the wanted poster in his hands, not even breathing. He greedily examined the portrait of the man, not wanting to forget any details. Dark eyes, mustache and black hair. Ricardo never saw him before and now couldn’t stop looking at the portrait.

That’s how he looked. That was definitely his padre.

The boy didn’t really listen to other things others talked about. At night he sneaked into the house and stole the wanted poster, carefully hiding it in one of his pockets near the ring and his mum’s picture.

In a few days Ricardo left the ranch, taking some food with him he could get and nothing else with him, not wanting to steal from people who were nice to him and saved his life.

He rapidly got to the nearest town. Everything was much easier now as Ricardo finally could speak English, but he didn’t find anything in the town.

Ricardo kept travelling, sometimes sneaking into the wagons, although he had to steal from time to time. He was hungry all the time and his coat wasn’t helping much to stay warm at nights.

And he ended up being in some small town.

Ricardo was hungry and wasn’t sure what he could do. His stomach growled and the boy sighed, looking around and noticing, that nobody really payed any attention to him.

He noticed a lonely horse standing behind the saloon and didn’t see anyone around. Maybe he could try and steal it?.. There’d probably be something in the saddle bad and he definitely needed a horse.

Carefully sneaking to the relaxed horse, Ricardo kept checking if anyone was watching him, but didn’t see anyone. He carefully approached and gently pat the horse’s neck, hearing it snorting in responce. 

Although it wasn’t easy to get into the saddle, but Ricardo mounted up and nudged the horse, finally relaxing and taking the reins in his hands.

The boy almost made it out of the town.

But everything didn’t go well.

He felt sharp pain in his shoulder and someone rapidly pulled him from the saddle, throwing into the dirt and kicking his ribs with a leg, making burning tears go down Ricardo’s cheeks.

“You piece of shit!”

Ricardo turned around and tried to jump on his fit, but another hit to his shoulder made him fall and scream in pain.

The knife he just took out fell into the mud and Ricardo’s vision got blurry, all he could feel was intence pain in the whole body.

“Fucking thief,” the man shot again, but Ricardo didn’t feel it as the man definitely missed. “Let’s see what you got,” he spit and started checking Ricardo’s pockets, immediately throwing away things he thought wasn’t worth anything, grabbing the ring.

Ricardo yelled.

“IT’S MINE!”

He jumped up and kicked the man’s leg, but ended up laying in the mud again after a strong hit at his head.

“What the fuck are ya doin here, Micah!? Is that... A KID?” Ricardo heard a husky voice of another man, but he couldn’t really see anything, as his face was covered with mud and blood. “Ya fucking idiot!”

“Ay, you idiota,” another voice appeared. That was Spanish? Ricardo thought he was dreaming after being hit too hard.

“Give- give it back!” Ricardo said, clenching his teeth and trying to gain strength to get up. “Give back my ring!” he almost yelled, feeling hot blood on his skin.

“That fucking bastard tried stealing my horse! I’m gonna shoot that piece of shit, you’re not stopping me, Morgan.”

“Get the hell outta here!” the hoarse voice grumbled. “And give me that damn ring.”

Arthur glared at Micah and took the ring, lowering how eyebrows and now looking at the shot kid. Twisting the ring in his hands, Arthur noticed some words on it, but couldn’t really tell what that meant. 

Javier approached him.

“So what we gonna do?” Javier looked at the boy and then at Arthur, throwing away his cigarette. Then he noticed the ring. “What the hell!”

Taking the ring from Arthur, Javier frowned and stared at it, now looking at the boy.

“WHERE did you get that!?”

“Javier, now you-”

Ricardo moaned and lifted his head, looking at the men in front of him. His eyes widened when he saw a familiar looking man in front of him and then dropped his head.

“You- Javier Escuella...”

Then he felt himself falling into the dark, being into too much pain and too tired. He wasn’t sure if he was dreaming, but he passed out with the thought that he finally found his padre.


End file.
